e story had suggested that he should try to
recount to them one which he had used to hear in his youth, and which
afforded an instance of the latter and better kind of feeling, his
heroine being also a lady who had married beneath her, though he feared
his narrative would be of a much slighter kind than the surgeon's. The
Club begged him to proceed, and the parson began.

DAME THE THIRD--THE MARCHIONESS OF STONEHENGE
By the Rural Dean

I would have you know, then, that a great many years ago there lived in a
classical mansion with which I used to be familiar, standing not a
hundred miles from the city of Melchester, a lady whose personal charms
were so rare and unparalleled that she was courted, flattered, and spoilt
by almost all the young noblemen and gentlemen in that part of Wessex.
For a time these attentions pleased her well. But as, in the words of
good Robert South (whose sermons might be read much more than they are),
the most passionate lover of sport, if tied to follow his hawks and
hounds every day of his life, would find the pursuit the greatest torment
and calamity, and would fly to the mines and galleys for his recreation,
so did this lofty and beautiful lady after a while become satiated with
the constant iteration of what she had in its novelty enjoyed; and by an
almost natural revulsion turned her regards absolutely netherward,
socially speaking. She perversely and passionately centred her affection
on quite a plain-looking young man of humble birth and no position at
all; though it is true that he was gentle and delicate in nature, of good
address, and guileless heart. In short, he was the parish-clerk's son,
acting as assistant to the land-steward of her father, the Earl of Avon,
with the hope of becoming some day a land-steward himself. It should be
said that perhaps the Lady Caroline (as she was called) was a little
stimulated in this passion by the discovery that a young girl of the
village already loved the young man fondly, and that he had paid some
attentions to her, though merely of a casual and good-natured kind.

Since his occupation brought him frequently to the manor-house and its
environs, Lady Caroline could make ample opportunities of seeing and
speaking to him. She had, in Chaucer's phrase, 'all the craft of fine
loving' at her fingers' ends, and the young man, being of a
readily-kindling heart, was quick to notice the tenderness in her eyes
and voice. He could not at